INTERVIEW: Don’t try this at home! ‘Science of Stupid’ showcases epic fails
Photo: Definitely don’t try this stunt at home. Instead, watch it on Science of Stupid. Photo courtesy of Nat Geo / Provided with permission.
The epic fails that circulate on YouTube and other social media have a dedicated following. Society loves to like, tweet and comment on skateboard tricks gone awry or funny pet videos that lead to embarrassment and more than a few Band-Aids.
What has largely been missing from this digital landscape of faux pas are the lessons of science that can help the viewer understand why that epic fail happened in the first place. That’s where National Geographic’s new blooper-rich series comes into the picture. Airing Mondays at 9 p.m., the Science of Stupid finds host Ben Aaron, a news reporter from PIX11 in the New York City region, commenting on the funny (and distressing) videos that can be found on the Internet.
“I’m amazed that people will try these crazy stunts,” Aaron said in a recent phone interview. “I’m definitely glad that I could be the one in a very comfortable studio talking about these stunts, but I think it’s brilliant that we can analyze it scientifically. … You never think there’s a science behind it. If a person tried to jump over a chair, and there’s too much angular momentum or whatever it is, and it really breaks down the intellectual aspect of these stupid events, which I think is brilliant.”
Aaron didn’t have a say on which videos were displayed on the inaugural season of Science of Stupid, but he envies the job of the producers and researchers who scanned through thousands of entries to find the best stories for the series. “When I arrive to the studio, I get to see these for the first time, so I’m like a kid in a candy store,” he said. “I’m just seeing these hilarious bloopers and fails, and then I get to talk about the science behind it, which is perfect.”
Aaron counts himself as a lover of science, and his wife is actually a meteorologist on television. Their home frequently receives magazines like Physics Today in the mail, so he’s surrounded by these scientific theories and principles at all times.
“You can watch the show, and all of a sudden, boom, I understand what the coefficient of friction is because I can put this hilarious blooper along with it,” Aaron said. “You don’t have to be a science buff to enjoy the show. You just have to be someone who loves to laugh and you learn inadvertently. … I’ll just be ordering food, and I’ll just say, ‘Your base of support is fantastic, by the way.’ It’s brilliant for students. If I would have had this show in middle school and high school when I was taking science, I would have absorbed so much more information.”
The host was quick to point out that not all the footage on Science of Stupid are bloopers and fails. One video features a skydiver who is separated from his parachute, so he actually needs to catch the parachute midair. Other examples are more hilarious because of what happens to the “stunt” person.
“I’m doing my best not to crack up,” he admitted. “This is the hardest I’ve ever tried not to crack up. You’re also talking about such involved scientific terminology that you have to nail, but meanwhile some guy just ate it on a skateboard trying to jump over the pet dog or something like that. It is very difficult to keep a straight face, but you think about baseball, you think about something else that doesn’t have any relation to it whatsoever.”
In the future, Aaron would love to host more episodes of the series, and he’s still happily surprised that Nat Geo came to him for the hosting duties in the first place.
“My agent at the time put me in the room with the execs at Nat Geo, and I said to them blatantly, ‘I don’t know why I’m here right now. I don’t know anything about nature, geography, anything you guys represent. I don’t know why I’m here, but we can chat and have some fun,’” Aaron said. “I think they appreciated that honesty. We had a really nice meeting, and several months later, they’re like, ‘We’re doing this show.’ I think they were going for hip geek. I think I fall under a hip geek profile, which is interesting — more geek than hip. It worked out in that way. I still have no idea why they chose me for this show. My wife has no idea why they chose me for this show, but I’m so happy they did because now I can throw out big words.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Science of Stupid, featuring Ben Aaron, airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on National Geographic. Click here for more information.
